Surgery

The doctor said surgery was required to get the floating bone fragments and reattach or remove them. He was aiming for arthriscopic surgery, but let us know that it may turn into something more based on what he found inside.

He did well with his first ever I.V. The therapist did a good job and got it on the first try.

This is Dr. Sokolow, the orthopaedic surgeon. He has a child at F.A. He also treated Dwayne with his torn ligament two years ago.


The anesthesia is starting to kick in and Derrik is relaxing.

It turned out to be major surgery, not outpatient. Six hours later, we saw Derrik in his room in the pediatric wing. They put him there so I would have a decent accommodations for sleeping.

The doctor said this was the worst injury of this kind he had ever seen. Derrik's knee cap was totally on the side of his leg, there were three big floating bone fragments, over 75% of the teflon in his joint was gone and there was a mess of small debris. Dr. Sokolow screwed one large piece of bone back onto his knee cap, tightened some tendons on one side and cut some on the other side, cleaned out the tiny stuff and stitched him back up.

Jack-o-lanterns

Grandpa grew lots of pumpkins. He gave us eight to carve and place along our long, dark driveway to light the way for trick-or-treaters. One rotted, so we were down to seven. That was enough to keep us busy for the night.

Our finished product.

The messy part...

Rally

The Palin rally was held just three blocks from my office, so a number of us decided to walk over and be a part of history.

We had a long line to get through security and a cold wait in the park but it was interesting watching all the people.

This is me with co-workers Ayree, Kelly, Laurie & Kris.

When the banners & signs REALLY got waving you couldn't see a thing.

Sarah made a great speech and her handsome husband just beamed at her.

What's Blooming in our Yard - October

The red knockout roses are still going pretty strong.

The burning bushes are the brightest this year that they have ever been. It's interesting that the ones on the right side of the patio are shorter & redder than the ones on the left side.

We have a few pink azaleas that bloom in the fall and spring.


The maynight salvia is one of my new favorites.


The shows the vibrancy of the burning bushes a little better.

Apple Festival

The boys always look forward to going to the apple festival at Graves Mountain. Our day was altered and shortened with Derrik's injury.

We enjoyed our lunch of Brunswick stew, cornbread and applesauce while listening to a bluegrass band on the stage.

While we took a hayride and cruised through the craft booths, Derrik stayed put at the picnic table with his book and GameBoy.

Grandpa & Grandma came with us for the first time in quite a few years. We bought our boxes of apples and jars of apple butter and made the trip home.

Knee Injury

Derrik went to play volleyball with friends and came home severely injured. He & Heath collided mid-air and Derrik's knee went out of the socket and back in. There were bones broken and tendons torn.

We had to wait a week to get an MRI so the doctor could decide exactly what needed to be done.

Brunswick Stew

We went to the annual Brunswick stew down by the beautiful Ni River Reservoir. Brandy & Corbin came with us and spent the night.

Rocky likes to come along too.

Brandy & Corbin weren't sure if they would like Brunswick stew. They ended up eating two bowls full, so I guess they liked it just fine.

The stew is cooked in a cast iron cauldron over a fire for many hours.

Bonfires

Addison, Travis, Derrik & Devin talking by the bonfire at Tom & Susan Tichenor's place. They recently moved out past Culpeper and had a large group of people over.

Some of the boys at the Tichenor's bonfire - Heath, Devin, Barry, Addison, Travis, Derrik & Trey. Aren't they all handsome? Devin does look better when his baby blues are OPEN. :)

We had a small bonfire in our backyard with just our family and Derrik's friend Simon. We cooked up some good hotdogs.